Army Career    Air Force Career    Career as an Author  
1. References

Ernest Barttelot Huffington-Smyth was born in India in 1880, the son of John Wickens Smyth, a persistent but rather unsuccessful plantation owner and manager. John Smyth was the son of Walter Barttelot Esq. of Stopham House, Sussex, who changed his name to Smyth in compliance with the will of his aunt. The Barttelots are said to have come into England with William the Conqueror, and to have fixed their residence at a place called La Ford, in the parish of Stopham, Sussex.^[1]

In India John Smyth married Verity Huffington, the daughter of Major Baldwin

Huffington, whose family was of considerable wealth and had served in the British Army for several generations.

Army Career

Ernest Huffington-Smyth was a less than enthusiastic scholar and showed little interest in assisting with the running of the family plantations. Family legend suggests that he also became too deeply attached to the daughter of the plantation cook. Following a disastrous fire which consumed his father’s tobacco crop and factory, his father-in-law purchased a commission for Ernest in the 21st Lancers Cavalry Regiment in 1897. Soon after Ernest’s father moved to the East Indies where he secured employment managing the plantations of others.

The 21st had begun as a regiment of the Honourable East India Company, the 3rd Bengal European Cavalry. It was brought on to the British establishment at the Company's dissolution, after the end of the Indian Mutiny, and was entitled Light Dragoons, then Hussars before becoming Lancers in 1897.^[2]

On entering the 21st Lancers, Ernest would have been aged 17 or 18. He was soon to see action. Britain sought revenge for its defeat in Sudan at the hands of Mahdist forces led by Muhammad Ahmad. Ahmad was dubbed the “Mad Mahdi” by the British Press^[3], and his campaign culminated in the death of General Gordon during the Battle of Khartoum in 1885. In 1896 General Sir Herbert Kitchener was ordered to invade northern Sudan with the strategic aim of keeping France out of the Horn of Africa. His forces achieved several smaller victories, culminating in the Battle of Omdurman in September 1898. At Omdurman, 8,000 British regulars supported by 17,000 Sudanese and Egyptian troops defeated a force numbering some 50,000 led by the successor of the Mad Mahdi, Abdullah al-Taashi also known as "The Khalifa". During the battle the 400-strong 21st Lancers regiment was ordered to charge the plain in front of Omdurman which was thought to be defended by only a few hundred “dervishes”. In fact there were 2,500 infantry hidden in a depression. A bloody fight ensued with three Victoria Crosses being awarded to Lancers who helped rescue wounded comrades. Throughout the battle, around 12,000 Muslim warriors were killed, 13,000 wounded and 5,000 taken prisoner. Kitchener's force lost 47 men killed and 382 wounded.

Soon, controversy over the killing of the wounded after the battle began. The debate was ignited by a critical article published by Ernest Bennett (present at the battle as a journalist) in the Contemporary Review.^[4] A young Winston Churchill was also present at the battle. In a letter to his mother, Churchill wrote that the victory at Omdurman had been "disgraced by the inhuman slaughter of the wounded and...Kitchener is responsible for this".^[5] Reaction to the mutilation of some of the British dead by the enemy after the battle led to some condemnation of the Dervishes. Lieutenant ‘Smyth’ was quoted as saying that if it had been up to him, "every man we captured on the battlefield should have been shot at once there and then, cold blood or not. If you had seen the condition of our dead you would have said the same."^[6]

"Omdurman" was the regiment's only battle honour, giving rise to the satirical regimental motto of "thou shalt not kill."^[7] Ernest Huffington-Smyth seems to have been chafed by such a motto and published a poem which seemed designed to enhance the regiment’s fearsome image. In part it read:

It appears that Huffington-Smyth’s statements and poems made him a target during the controversy over the battle of Omdurman. As a result he was persuaded to quit the regiment. In disgust he traveled to New York USA, where little is known of his life until the First World War.

Air Force Career

In America Hufington-Smyth adopted a new identity, taking his grandfather’s name to become ‘Walter Smyth’. It is not clear if this was the only name he used or how he established his new identity. He obtained a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University. When the United States declared war on Germany in 1917, ‘Walter Smyth’ enlisted in the United States Army and was sent to France. There his college degree aided him in joining the United States Army Air Service where he trained as a pilot.

The only detailed information on his flying career is from a memoire written by the US fighter ace Eddie Rickenbacker.^[9] There Walter demonstrated the same fighting spirit he had displayed in Africa. Rickenbacker reports that “Lieutenant Walter Smyth, of New York, came to me on the morning of May 10th, 1918, and said: “Rick, where do you find all these Boches of yours over the lines?” I asked him what he meant by “all.” “Why,” he said, “I've been over the lines two or three times and I haven't had a single look at an enemy machine. I would like to go across with some one like you who always gets into some fun. Will you take me with you on a voluntary patrol?” This was the spirit I liked to see in a pilot”. Rickenbacker went on to state that Smyth “had the ability and character of a wonderful pilot and he was a reliable companion in a fight”. He flew Nieuport 28 aircraft.

Career as an Author

After the war ‘Walter Smyth’ moved to New Zealand. While working at an abattoir, he began writing and had several novels published over the next fifteen years. His first novel appears autobiographical. “Jean of the Tussock Country” was published by Mills & Boon in 1928. In this story, an English “new chum” has to prove himself to the surly locals and at the same time falls in love with the boss‘s daughter, an “outdoorsy” type with “unruly copper coloured hair that refused to remain concealed under her broad-brimmed felt hat” and a face “tanned a delicate shade of brown, which harmonised perfectly with the deeper hint of her humorous eyes”.^[10] Walter did indeed marry Priscilla, the daughter of the owner of the abattoir.

Some of Walter’s poetry was highlighted in the Jindyworobak Anthology, published annually from 1938 to 1953. This was an Australian work produced by the Jindyworobak Movement. Its emphasis was Australian culture but it occasionally included material from New Zealand and elsewhere.

Tragically ‘Walter Smyth’ was killed in an industrial accident in 1948. He left no children.

References

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